Build a transport rig

Thinking over how to build a transport rig for moving fish around.

The idea is to build a tank system out of acrylic within an enclosed trailer (racing car transporter etc to give an idea of style of enclosed trailer).

The trailer would be enclosed to keep the tanks warm (or cool depending on time of year and time of day of the transport), to provide physical protection to the tanks and for privacy.

The trailer can be quite long - 20 feet long would be no problem provided a small truck is setup to tow it (F150 or similar etc) and can be the legal width and 8 feet high to give head room for walking in to load/unload the tanks.

I dont see the trailer as a problem in anyway - this is old tech, well known and tried and proven over and over countless times. The trailer can be engineered to carry 2 tons without blinking and possibly as high as 3 tons (starting to push it a bit now) So far so good.

Now comes the hard part - designing a tank system. The tanks would have to be Acrylic for weight savings. The fact that acrylic is also a bit more insulating does not hurt. The tanks are not for show of course so pretty design is not a factor. The tanks can have braces inside the tanks to stop bowing/deflection.

The ideal would be to have a row of tanks down each wall of the trailer - so 2 rows - 1 down each side. Because the trailer can go as high as 8 feet it lets the tanks be 2+ feet high - but more on this in a bit.

Reasons for doing this are;

1/ Easier on the fish - rather then pack fish in bags/boxes as per the norm, the fish can be put into tanks with MUCH more water - when packing fish the usual way, the more water in the bag the better they travel. The reason why the least amount of water possible is put into transport bags is simply weight issues = cost of transport if being flown anywhere. More water per bag = fish arrive in better less stressed shape - there is ZERO doubt on that. If the fish are placed in tanks, of course there is LOTS more water.

2/ Packing time is reduced. If any of you have ever packed 40 boxes of fish you know how long it takes. Of course the fish that goes into a bag/box first is in there for hours longer then the fish that goes into the last bag/box. Strategies to deal with this are to pack the toughest hardiest fish first, but still..... If packing fish into tanks, the whole packing side could be finished in an hour instead of taking 8 hours to pack fish into bags/boxes. This puts considerably less stress on the fish. Less stress = better survival rates.

3/ Unpacking time vastly reduced. Again, unpacking 40 boxes of fish after a long drive when you are now very tired is no fun at all. Much easier to scoop fish out of tanks with a net and place into their new tanks on arrival. Much much faster and less stress on the fish.

Other benefits are that in a centrally plumbed transport rig, the transport tanks can be connected into whatever system the fish are coming out of and the same tank water circulated into the transport rig meaning water from the tanks the fish are in before transport can be circulated through the transport rig tanks. No shock for the fish being moved from tank to tank. Makes the process near seamless.

Same on the unload side. Hook the transport rig tanks into the tanks the fish are going into upon arrival and circulate for an hour or so. Fish can then be scooped out and placed straight into their new tanks.

So that's the rational behind the idea. Now to design the whole setup. Idea is to have a trailer custom built for the purpose. I expect this will run some $$$ but Que Sera, Sera, - right? I doubt anyone would be doing this for the money - if so they would be sorely disappointed. So while money is always an issue, its not the primary concern. Getting the transport rig right is.

So how to design the tanks?

I am at the earliest stages of thinking up a design, hence asking here for input on some of the ideas i am throwing around. I am thinking that a tall tank 3 feet high divided into sections to separate different types of fish is appropriate. This keeps aggressive fish away from the more delicate types. Allows separation of different types of the same species etc (think color morphs of the same species or silver females of the same species that came from different areas etc)

I guess i really need to learn sketchup to draw some plans to show what i am talking about.

My main issue is circulating water through the tanks at the various levels to make assure all fish get sufficient oxygen. How would i do that? If i have a water input how would i get that ciculated evenly over 2 or 3 "layers" within the master tank?

Thanks J.D

It just occurred to me - maybe the best place to ask about such a setup as i have described would be the saltwater forums - those guys mostly use acrylic - right?

FunWow! said:

How far are you transporting fish? What's the weather like there? How big are they? How many? And how often do you need to do this?


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Distance about 700 miles. Cold, mild and hot at different times of year. 1" to 10" with average 4". probably 300 -1000 fish. 5 - 6 times a year.

oddball - appreciate the feedback.

Been there done that. I rigged up EXACTLY what you describe back in 2000. It worked great. I used that exact tote, i made up some polyurethane panels then lined it all with plywood. I had an oxygen diffuser in the tank (through hole drilled in lid) and that was connected to solenoid valve. The solenoid was connected to a timer - iirc its was 5 seconds on - 30 seconds off. Lots of oxygen. Temp held well.

Problem is, its difficult to get fish in and out (not impossible, but not ideal). Also, all fish mixed up in one tank.

I could two of these tanks on my trailer.

I need to try another way. I need to break up the way to carry lots of species.

ok so the thing is, the transport containers need to be *FULL* of water with no air in the tank at all. This is to keep the water in the tank from sloshing around and knocking fish against each other and against the tank itself.

Baffles in the tank itself are no good - the tank needs to have whatever room is available inside the tank for fish to swim, not have a baffle making the tank smaller and another object to hit against.

Its an easy concept to understand - take a plastic 2 Ltr drink bottle and half fill it, put something like a match stick in the half full bottle then put the top back on - now move the bottle around a bit like you might expect it to move while on a road trip on bumpy roads.

Do the same thing again but this time fill the bottle all the way to the top with no air in the bottle at all. Now move the bottle around and see how the match stick hardly moves at all - even if you get quite violent with the movements you apply to the bottle - the matchstick hardly moves at all.

By removing 100% of the air from the tank, the water in the tank does not move much. The contents in the tank while in this state dont move at all. All the turbulence of water movement is removed if the tank has *NO* air at all in the top of the tank.

So this is the issue - how to build a tank so that all the air can be removed for transport but still be able to open the tank to get fish in and out. The top of the tank will need to be able to be sealed, yet allow gas to escape (oxygen would be pumped in via an oxygen bottle, solenoid and oxygen diffuser)